Ships 1: Republic Carrier
by adventuresincanon
Summary: The first in a series in which I get out all the exposition about spaceships I've thought of so it doesn't bog down a proper story.


p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Under the Empire the ship would've been called a light carrier, but as the Republic had nothing bigger it was simply a carrier. The design was a result of the political change that had swept the galaxy in the wake of the fall of the Empire. Small- just 350 metres long- because the demilitarised Republic would accept nothing larger. A carrier of fighters- a squadron of K-wings for heavy strikes, two squadrons of X-wings for everything else- because the small ships had proven so effective against the Empire in the last war, and the large decks could be adapted to any task from carrying troops to systems in need of calm to delivering aid to systems in need of relief. Buried in the specifications was the notion that the government's ships should never again be a symbol of power, and so the carrier lacked anything as striking as a wedged hull./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The flight decks of the ship were formed of a hexagonal extrusion, of the form that could be churned out by any basic shipworks, including the devastated factories of Kuat. The Mon Calamari had again taken up the tools to build starships, and so had seen fit to furnish the Republic with a shield system that could absorb anything a planetary deference frigate could muster. The drive section counted seven of the Corellian Ccorporation's finest thrusters, at least this week; those specifications also called for the drive mounts to accept engines from any number of manufacturers, and the corporation was constantly whispering in the ears of the senate to keep their work pushing the Republic fleet through the stars. Sublight performance was slow, but the hyperdrive was fast and the navicomputer precise. The ship could drop from hyperspace to discharge a flight of fighters before flitting off to some other part of the system to do more of the same. A series of tractor-repulsors reverse engineered from a Geonosian sloop found in the Emperor's personal hanger ribbed the flight deck section, allowing the ship to drawing stricken fighters or manoeuvre around a space dock or down to a planetary surface./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Six general purpose laser weapons sprouted from the ends of the hangar section, and it was here that the efficiency of the design reached it's peak. Centrally-controlled quad emplacements, the weapons could be set to scatter rounds across the flight path of a fighter or send a single precise burst at the armour of a pirate raider. They could be set to fire ion bursts or laser rounds, long range pure-laser shots or short intense turbo'd blasts, and were so arranged that most of the weapons could be trained on an attacker from any vector. The mechanics of the targeting were entirely computer controlled, and the gunnery officer was responsible only for deciding when they should be used. The gunnery school and the Republic's legal offices were located together for a reason./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The prow of the ship was a blunted dome- again a standard design- capped with a bridge, dangling sensors, and flanked by airlocks. The cap of the dome covered a mission module that could be swapped out depending on the ship's assignment, again to make the most of limited resources. At most times the carriers of the fleet were fitted with general purpose modules, filled with a mix of sensors, comms systems, and an extra med bay to ensure that those who had to use such equipment had enough practice at it, regardless of whether it would see any use. The prow was normally the only section of the ship that was kept habitable; most of the ship's systems were kept running by droids. The civilised galaxy had little need for an ordnance specialist but a droid mechanic was always handy, and the disarmament act had decreed that the Republic navy train it's recruits in the skills necessary to keep the machinery of Republic running, not the skill to destroy it./span/p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;" /p  
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"As an exercise in the moderation and efficiency a military could achieve in the new galaxy, the carriers were unparalleled. As a defense against the encroachment of the First Order they were trivial./p 


End file.
